Bill Bavasi

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Please help improve this article or section by expanding it.
Further information might be found on the talk page or at requests for expansion. (September 2007)

This article does not cite any references or sources. (March 2008)
Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unverifiable material may be challenged and removed.

William J. Bavasi (born December 27, 1957, Scarsdale, New York) is the current general manager and vice president of baseball operations for the Seattle Mariners. The son of longtime Major League Baseball executive Buzzie Bavasi and the brother of Peter Bavasi, also a former MLB executive, Bill also spent six full seasons (1994-99) as the general manager of the California/Anaheim Angels.

Bill Bavasi was a graduate of University of San Diego. Bavasi began his front office baseball career with the Angels, where his father was front office boss from 1977-84. Bill Bavasi was an administrator in the Angels' minor league department in 1981-82, then held the positions of farm system director and Director of Player Development before he succeeded Whitey Herzog as the Angels' GM on January 12, 1994. Bavasi remained in place when the club was sold by Jackie Autry, widow of the team's original owner Gene Autry, to the Walt Disney Company. But late-season collapses plagued the franchise, and Bavasi was succeeded by Bill Stoneman on October 1, 1999. After two seasons (2002-2003) as player development chief of the Los Angeles Dodgers — the team his father oversaw through four World Series titles during the 1950s and 1960s — Bill Bavasi returned to the GM ranks with the Mariners on November 7, 2003.

[edit] Seattle Mariners 2004-present

During Bavasi's Mariner tenure, the club has achieved only one winning season (88-74 in 2007). Losing records of 63-99 in 2004, 69-93 in 2005, 78-84 in 2006, and a sub .500 2008 have not helped Bavasi's image from fans perspectives^[1]. At the current rate of the 2008 season, Bavasi could be the first general manager in the history of the MLB to have a 100 loss season with a 100 million dollar payroll^[2], which is unprecedented in not only MLB, but sports history.

In May discussions about the losing 2008 season, Bavasi was quoted backing his field manager John Mclaren saying "John is doing the job, and the team's performance is not related to his work. It's purely related to player performance and underachieving."^[3] Unfortunately for Bavasi, he was the individual who signed and/or traded for the majority of the Mariners players.

Trades and Signings

Through his tenure so far as the Seattle Mariners GM Bavasi has made plenty of impacting signings and trades, although few have been positives. Free agent signings under Bavasi include Raúl Ibáñez, Richie Sexson, Adrian Beltre, Jarrod Washburn, Scott Spezio, Rich Aurilia, Carl Everett, Matt Lawton, and Jeff Weaver. Some of the notable trades that Bavasi has made during his tenure as Mariners GM include: Freddy Garcia for Miguel Olivo, Jeremy Reed, and Mike Morse; Carlos Guillen for Ramon Santiago; Asdrubal Cabrera for Eduardo Perez; Shin-Soo Choo for Ben Broussard; Randy Winn for Jesse Foppert, and Rafael Soriano for Horacio Ramírez. Some of these moves have been controversial moves and have upset the Mariners' fan base which led to Howard Lincoln (Mariners CEO), saying Bavasi was on the "hot seat" unless he produced a championship contender. Nonetheless, CEO Lincoln announced that Bavasi would be brought back in 2008 because he had produced a winning record in 2007.

Talks of controversial transactions have continued during the 2007-2008 offseason. On February 8, 2008, Bavasi consummated a deal in which Seattle acquired pitcher Érik Bédard from the Baltimore Orioles. Bédard was traded to the Seattle Mariners in a 5 for 1 deal sending outfielder Adam Jones and pitchers George Sherrill, Tony Butler, Chris Tillman and Kam Mickolio to the Orioles. By mid-May 2008 the Mariners were already fifteen games under .500 and already out of the pennant race, while Sherrill is at the top of the MLB in saves^[4] and Jones is batting .251^[5] for Baltimore.

Internet Petitions

Several internet petitions have been started by outraged Mariners fans calling for the firing of Bill Bavasi as general manager of the club. A website^[6]cites the goal of becoming contenders once again and achieving the goal by firing the mariners general manager. An online petition was also started^[7] calling for some action on Bavasi from the Mariner's upper management.

Comparison to other General Managers

Forbes Magazine ranked Bavasi 87th out of 98 General Managers of professional sports with 3 or more years of experience in 2007.^[8] Bill Bavasi was ranked as 22nd out of 30 general managers for the MLB in 2004^[9]

References

Preceded by Whitey Herzog	California/Anaheim Angels General Manager 1994–99	Succeeded by Bill Stoneman
Preceded by Pat Gillick	Seattle Mariners General Manager 2003–	Succeeded by incumbent